go team
by Domenic
Summary: Mirroverse/Shattered Glass AU. Captured by Arcee, Starscream and Shockwave will have to work together... UPDATE: Final act up.
1. act 1

**Title: go team [act 1/3]**

**Fandom: Transformers Prime**

**Summary: Mirroverse/Shattered Glass AU. Captured by Arcee, Starscream and Shockwave will have to work together.**

**Disclaimer: I own nothing related to Transformers Prime.**

act 1

Arcee was somewhat annoyed. Even when forced to kneel down, Shockwave was almost level with her full height. She smothered her irritation with a smirk.

"How_ logical _was it, I wonder, to be caught sneaking around by yourself?"

The Con scientist kept up the silent treatment.

"You're in luck though, One Eye—got an encrypted signal from the Cons." Arcee crossed her arms, tilting her head. "You're gonna decode it for me."

Tilting his own head back, Shockwave broke his silence. "It is unlikely you would let me live after fulfilling that request, so where is the logic in abiding by your will?"

Arcee's smirk widened. She gestured to a spot behind Shockwave.

"Do you really think I would _logically_ try this with you unless I had insurance?"

Shockwave stared at the scrawny winged figure thrown down beside him.

"If someone says any version of 'logic' one more time, kindly put me out of my misery," Starscream snarled.

"Oh trust me, Screamer," Arcee said, firing up her blaster and leveling it toward his head, "that's a very real possibility unless Shockwave here starts cooperating."

Shockwave's voice was deadpan. "You miscalculated. I have no incentive in the well-being of your hostage."

"What a team player," Starscream's response was just as deadpan.

Arcee rather thought Shockwave gave himself away when she backhanded Starscream with her unsheathed arm blade: he'd turned and stared, and it rather seemed as if his hand flexed, as if wishing to wrap itself around her throat.

###

The door slid open and shut too quickly for Shockwave to efficiently respond, and no guard entered, Starscream just tossed inside and landing in a coughing heap.

Stalking over, Shockwave knelt at the seeker's side, stiffly moving his hand around in circles on Starscream's back, in between his slightly scratched wings.

"I didn't give them anything relevant," Starscream panted, wiping a hand across his bloodied mouth.

"Understood," Shockwave quietly said, then helped the seeker stand up.

Running a claw over the gash on his cheek, Starscream sighed, then pushed off the larger Decepticon. "I'm fine...thank you, Shockwave."

His only response: "What are you doing here, Starscream?"

The seeker stretched his arms while taking a look around their cell. "Trying to identify some suspicious activity that Soundwave's intelligence reports picked up."

"Is Soundwave stretched that thin he could not come himself or send any of his symbiotes?"

"Indeed he is." Done stretching, Starscream glanced back over his shoulder to Shockwave. "What about you?"

"Stolen technology. Tracking the culprit down."

###

Arcee resisted the urge to fidget under Optimus Prime's gaze. At least he was on a screen transmitting some distance aways.

"Take them to Ratchet, you're already scheduled to make contact with him-"

"Sir, there's no need, I can handle this myself-"

Though his optics were calm, they seemed to grow marginally colder, enough to make Arcee stop and remind her that she had cut the Prime off.

"Ratchet will have his experiment again, and the chance to test the new procedure. Are we clear, Commander?"

"Of course, my Prime."

The live feed clicked off, the screen blank once more.

**A/N: Imagine a particularly long commerical break here. Thanks for reading, feedback always appreciated, and I hope you enjoyed! Act 2 will be up later.**


	2. act 2

**Title: go team [act 2/3]**

**Fandom: Transformers Prime**

**Summary: Mirroverse/Shattered Glass AU. Captured by Arcee, Starscream and Shockwave will have to work together.**

**A/N: Thanks for all the feedback and interest! Hope you enjoy this next part.**

**Disclaimer: I own nothing related to Transformers Prime.**

act 2

"And they bought it? You tricked them into thinking you were unconscious?" Starscream sounded a little impressed and admiring as his claws roved along the cell walls.

His arms crossed, Shockwave leaned against one wall Starscream had already checked, his singular red optic trained on the cell's only exit. The larger Con had already examined the room, and doubted he would find anything new if he joined Starscream in his own search.

"Apparently, given I came out of interrogation relatively unscathed," Shockwave curtly replied.

The larger Con was the first to see the door slide open, though he heard Starscream quickly whip around. Shockwave immediately stepped in front of the seeker as the Autobot guards flooded their cell, obviously still outnumbering them.

"You're coming with us," Arcee said, the last to enter and observe Shockwave and Starscream getting bound again.

"Really? And here I thought you'd had a change of spark and would escort us to freedom—" The seeker's biting sarcasm turned to an undignified yelp as one guard yanked him forward by his bonds. Arcee rolled her eyes, Starscream stumbled back to his feet and to a more stable if grudging walk, while Shockwave tried to remain behind those two to better watch them, along with observing the other guards.

###

Leaving the complex of Shockwave and Starscream's failed investigation, the Autobots and their Decepticon captives walked through an abandoned battlefield, whatever city it had been before left to rust. The silence was broken by the crunch of their own pedes on the rubble and additional noises from their travel; by occasional Autobot chatter, whether sharing gossip or news or little stories, before Arcee would inevitably tell them to shut it and pay attention; and by the very distant sounds of battle on some other battlefield, a clearly active one, occasionally accompanied by the light of faraway explosions.

"Cybertron's becoming little more than a graveyard," Starscream muttered, raising his head to track another violent burst of light.

Arcee came to a halt, whirling on Starscream. "For the last time, seeker, shut _up_ or—"

"Or what, you'll use force?" Starscream sneered, waving his bound arms at the gash and other wounds on his face. "I'm afraid you've already exhausted that punishment, _Commander_."

Scowling, Arcee snapped out an order to one of the guards: "Pick the loudmouth up."

"I beg your p—_hey_!" Starscream shouted as one of the larger guards bodily lifted him up and heaved him over her shoulder. Shockwave had tensed and took a step forward—but paused when he caught Arcee's alert eyes.

"_Put me down right now, I can walk_—!" Starscream continued to shout, kicking his legs in the air and looking for a target to strike, but the guards had quickly kept their distance once they noticed how sharp the heels of his pedes actually were. Still the seeker squirmed and screeched, and even the guard carrying him started to curse.

"Would you rather I ordered it so you _couldn't_ walk?" Arcee said in a deadpan voice. Starscream immediately shut his mouth and ceased his struggling, slumping down and wearing a filthy look on his face.

And so they continued, and the rest of the way Starscream was bodily carried to the second location.

###

"Normally I'd say I actually regret leaving you here, and how I wish things had turned out differently," and Arcee's voice was completely deadpan, "but _you_," and then she glanced to Starscream, "have _really_ tried my patience."

"I am_ so _sorry for not being the perfect little hostage for you," Starscream hissed once the guard had let him back on his own two pedes. Shockwave stood at the ready, completely on edge as he tried to figure out Arcee's reason for moving them in the first place. The only thing that made sense was that she was seeking extra help with her interrogation—

"And I won't be sorry seeing you knocked down a peg or two, Screamer," Arcee spat out as she punched a code on the console, and the door hissed open.

Behind it were two medical berths and a tray of medical supplies.

Shockwave had read Starscream's file once Soundwave added it to the Decepticon military archives—

The seeker more than deflated, he stumbled against the larger Con, shaking, and Shockwave felt him slide against his finish, threatening to fall; Shockwave bounced him up with his shoulder and stood in front of the seeker, feeling Starscream lean against his back, still shaking

—and he remembered that file well.

"Starscream, this does not mean that Ratchet is here," Shockwave said, his voice slightly faster and softer than normal. The seeker dared to peek around Shockwave.

"It's been a while, hasn't it?" Ratchet asked as he entered the room, carrying a data pad.

"_**Scrap**_," said Shockwave and Starscream simultaneously, Shockwave's voice more firm, angrier and slightly exasperated by this insanity, while Starscream's was one step before complete hysteria.

**A/N: Starscream's canonical "graveyard" line in the canonical "Out of the Past" episode has always intrigued me, just another moment that seems to serve as small reminder that the Bots aren't the only ones to regret Cybertron's downfall. So, definitely had to play with that line here. Also, ominous hints of Mirror!Starscream and Mirror!Ratchet's backstory with each other start in this act. Now, just imagine another particularly long commerical break here. Thanks for reading, feedback always appreciated, and I hope you enjoyed! The final act will be up later.**


	3. act 3

**Title: go team [act 3/3]**

**Fandom: Transformers Prime**

**Summary: Mirroverse/Shattered Glass AU. Captured by Arcee, Starscream and Shockwave will have to work together.**

**Disclaimer: I own nothing related to Transformers Prime.**

**A/N: Hope you enjoy the last act! Feedback is always appreciated.**

act 3

The second a guard laid another hand on Starscream, the seeker's reaction was immediate, and Shockwave's response to him just as quick.

Starscream raked a claw across the guard's face, making him yelp, and Shockwave grabbed his head and threw him into another guard. Arcee disappeared in the sea of reinforcements flooding the room.

The seeker struck forward like a cornered beast, and Shockwave backed him up, thinking that despite the Autobots' superior numbers, they would be caught off guard, and they could capitalize on—

The larger Decepticon shoved Starscream out of the way of a group of Autobots rushing to pile on him. Shockwave brought up a defending arm too slow, and the guards crashed into him, all of them slamming to the floor.

Through the bodies trying to—and succeeding—at pinning him down, the larger Decepticon heard Starscream's alarmed "_Shockwave_!"

"Just go—"

When Shockwave heard the tear of metal as one body was pulled off his eye to be replaced by Starscream's worried face staring down at him, the larger Decepticon was seized by the sudden urge to punch his smaller comrade for his poor prioritizing.

The seeker gagged as one large hand grabbed his neck while another yanked at his scratched wing, both pulling Starscream out of Shockwave's sight.

Shockwave fought more viciously, and more guards simply threw themselves over Shockwave in a mad struggle to keep him down.

The bodies rolled on the floor—Shockwave was flipped on his abdomen and his eye was free to watch two, then three Autobot guards carry a madly clawing and shrieking Starscream to a berth.

But the larger Decepticon could not budge. The sound of a blaster against his head was another incentive. Even if Arcee still wanted him alive, he could not trust a guard to restrain himself from violently acting without thinking. A shot to the head was likely to be fatal, and Shockwave could not run the risk of leaving Starscream alone to suffer interrogation and Ratchet resuming his depraved experimentation with the seeker. (Shockwave knew Soundwave had tried to fill the records with only the facts, but those were graphic enough, and left much to the imagination)

"Frag you,_**frag you**_, let go of me, _please_ let go—!" Starscream was shrieking a relentless stream of curses and demands and begging, the heels of his feet digging so deep into the floor it left whining scratch marks.

Then the seeker twisted and pulled; he kicked, actually striking someone and leaving them with a gash. Another guard immediately rushed in to grab the airborne leg, then the other. More guards bodily lifted the seeker up.

Starscream caught another sight of the incoming medical berth. "_Nonono_—"

The seeker madly arched back against the guard that lifted him from under his arms, stabbing his horn apparatus into that guard's cheek. She let go, shouting.

Starscream didn't have far to fall and flail before Ratchet finally swooped in to hold Starscream tightly by the neck, squeezing.

The seeker sputtered on the sudden restriction on his voice box, and his eyes widened, petrified as they met Ratchet's. His entire frame seemed to slacken.

The Autobot scientist ordered, "Put him there, quickly—"

Starscream snapped out of it, starting to madly struggle again, but Ratchet and the guards slammed him against the berth.

Clearly with technology sensitive to touch, the bonds automatically flicked out of the berth to encircle Starscream's wrists and ankles and wings, and the seeker immediately pulled uselessly against them.

"Good, now the other one," Ratchet said, nodding to Shockwave.

The larger Decepticon was pulled up and carefully led to the other berth, while Starscream repeatedly yanked at his bonds, his claws scratching again and again at the berth before digging in as he arched away from the berth as far as he could.

The bonds held.

The seeker plopped back down, looking as if he were about to hyperventilate, eyes darting everywhere from Ratchet to Shockwave.

Eyes wide, Starscream begged again, "Doctor, please, _please_, please let us go—"

From his position bound to the berth, Shockwave turned at the sound of Arcee's grunt. "Funny you should be stuck with an emotional, _illogical_ comrade like that," she said.

And yet Shockwave noted the quiet unsettled tone of her voice, and the hard way she stared at the medical supplies, how stiffly hesitant she would pick up one, then put it down to hold up another. She was fidgeting.

"After being locked up as Ratchet's lab experiment once before, Starscream's current emotional reaction makes perfect sense," Shockwave replied in a low voice. "I would not expect him to react too differently from this."

Arcee narrowed her eyes. Then she put the last tool down, and raised her voice, calling to Ratchet, "Let's just gag him already."

Ratchet's voice was cool. "I thought you wanted him to talk."

Arcee scowled.

"But if you insist..." And Ratchet turned to the seeker. "Starscream, if you're quiet, I promise Shockwave won't be first."

The seeker stared, chest pounding. But he nodded. And didn't make a sound.

Shockwave felt his iron-clad hold on his temper start to slip. "You choose _now_ to silence yourself?"

Starscream managed a helpless shrug despite his bound wrists and wings.

Shockwave's snapped temper didn't last long. He was soon distracted by what Ratchet was gathering on the lab table—

"This is what you were looking for, wasn't it, Shockwave, when you were captured?" Ratchet said without turning back to look at the Decepticon scientist. "The stolen data on your cortical psych patch technology?"

"And what the frag is that?" Arcee bluntly asked with an arched brow, voicing the clear question in Starscream's optics.

"A new, more in-depth form of viewing another's neural processor," said Ratchet.

Starscream's eyes widened at that, darting from Ratchet to Shockwave.

Arcee's eyes also darted from Ratchet to the two Decepticon prisoners. "So...don't you need to turn off his neural processor to make things easier—"

"No," was Ratchet's blunt answer, and Arcee immediately shut her mouth. Starscream closed his eyes, his jaw clenching.

Shockwave meanwhile was entirely focused on Ratchet's actions, mentally going through the to-do list for the psych patch procedure—Ratchet was almost ready—

"Were you not debriefed? I am the one being questioned for the codes, not the seeker—he's merely a hostage," Shockwave said.

"So _are_ you ready to talk then?" Arcee asked, the bite in her voice a little worn down by an edge of exhaustion. She seemed to notice the lapse, and put on a smirk of bravado as cover-up, her tone lyrical, "Talk now, and this whole thing can be called off—"

"No," Ratchet said, finally turning to face the Decepticons again, with what Shockwave identified as the necessary cortical tubing, and ignoring Arcee's clear surprise. "This is the perfect opportunity to test the cortical psych patch." The elder Autobot shot Arcee a particular stern look. "Whether Shockwave cooperates or not, the procedure is happening."

Arcee bristled, but said nothing more.

"But your mission objective is to obtain the codes," Shockwave continued. "Logically, I should be the first target—"

"Intelligence indicates Soundwave and Starscream also have a particular camaraderie, it's not too unlikely that Soundwave could've shared some working methods with him as well," Ratchet said, as he grabbed Starscream by the throat and twisted his head to better jack in. Starscream's eyes were squeezed shut, and though not a sound came out, his mouth still moved quickly, and Shockwave could see how he mouthed "_no_" repeatedly. "It's a hypothesis worth testing."

Shockwave's voice was deathly low. "If you touch him one more time—"

Ratchet jacked in the link, making Starscream's head jerk and spark, his eyes snapping open, before falling limp on the berth, staring blankly.

"Threats aren't that logical, are they?" Ratchet said with a slight smirk. He walked away to a screen already crackling to life.

Shockwave inwardly seethed as he called to Starscream. The seeker didn't respond.

"Given my history with Starscream and its similarity to our current situation, there may be some instinctive memories to get through before possibly finding the information we want," Ratchet vaguely murmured for what could only be Arcee's benefit as he typed.

On the screen were scenes rapidly cycling by—a long row of berths, each with a seeker strapped down on it, Starscream included, and Ratchet there, but no Shockwave or Arcee in sight, only other different medical personnel on hand—Ratchet plunging a purple syringe into a gagged Starscream whom writhed—Ratchet plunging the syringe into another seeker while Starscream watched with wide, terrified eyes, before squeezing them shut—Starscream in a cell, curling up against glass, curling up in the corner to get as close as possible to the bodies of two other seekers on both sides of the glass corner, seekers that deeply resembled him...Shockwave remembered the line in Starscream's file about him being the last of his trine, and the only survivor of a Crystal Sector squadron...

Finally text flickered on the screen instead. Arcee was entirely focused on the screen, just as Ratchet was.

"Starscream," Shockwave tried again when the seeker's foot had twitched, and he'd closed his eyes, grimacing once the snippets of memory on the screen had stopped. He blinked at Shockwave, then darted a glance to Ratchet and Arcee. He shared one more look with Shockwave, before slumping back down with his eyes staring vacantly, playing comatose.

"This looks promising," Ratchet said, eyes scanning the line of code.

"Only if it works," Arcee said, going to the computer panel on the other side of Ratchet. Typing, she accessed the encrypted signal her forces had picked up, and used the code to unlock it.

Shockwave turned at Knock Out's urgent voice crackling over the recording, seeing Starscream twitch once out of the corner of his eye.

_"We need immediate evac at these coordinates—"_

The recording of Knock Out listed them, and Shockwave dared not look back at Starscream, though he hoped the seeker had enough self-control to keep his facade up.

Once Knock Out's recording ended, Arcee said, "Yep, definitely works."

Ratchet walked back to Shockwave, unsheathing his blade. "Unfortunately Shockwave, my debriefing with Optimus Prime was very clear about your execution upon the successful completion of our mission objective," he said, parroting back some of the Decepticon scientist from before. "Starscream will live, if it's any consolation to you."

Shockwave observed Arcee order the two guards that had remained. "You two, tell our forces to gear up for a raid, then rendezvous at the ground bridge."

"Always the delegator, Arcee?" Shockwave cut in. "You've already delegated everything to Ratchet."

Shockwave believed that despite the recent victory, Arcee's patience was still near the breaking point after her interactions with Ratchet.

"That's it!" Arcee snapped, whirling on Shockwave and unsheathing her own blade. "Doctor, I had this one eyed freak captured, _I'll_ be the one to shut him up for good."

Ratchet scoffed, rolling his eyes and waving a dismissive hand. "Fine, whatever, just remember that Starscream is off-limits."

"What do you want with him anyway? You already fried his mind," Arcee pointed out in a deadpan sort of voice.

"Perhaps," Ratchet said. "And perhaps he can still be revived. At the very least, I'll have something to dissect. In any case," and Ratchet laid a hand on Arcee's shoulder, "Don't. Touch. Him."

Arcee stiffly nodded her head.

Ratchet gently patted her shoulder. "Good. I'll go oversee the raiding party."

"You're not thinking of joining, are you?" Arcee curtly asked as the old Autobot passed her.

"Of course. You may require a medic's attention." And with that, Ratchet left the room.

###

Starscream got the last binding off just in time to throw himself at Arcee and stop her from shooting Shockwave's neural processor out.

The two scrambled on the floor—Starscream's large claw covering her face, trying to keep her from gouging one of his eyes out with her arm blades.

Finally he managed to toss her onto the berth he'd just fled, and its bindings immediately clamped around her instead.

"_Starscream_!" Arcee immediately shouted, glaring and pulling at her own bonds.

Gasping after that adrenaline- and terror-fueled rush and pressing a claw to his pounding spark, Starscream rasped, "Ohprimus for once I'm glad those blasted things have motion sensors." Then he dashed off to let Shockwave out.

Starscream spoke in a rush, "We have to go, we have to help Knock Out and the others—!"

"With nothing but you two and a whole base of Autobots and Ratchet in your way?" Arcee sneered. "Might as well just give up—"

Shockwave punched Arcee across the jaw, cleanly rendering her unconscious.

"Agreed," Shockwave said, as if Arcee had been silent the whole time.

Starscream immediately went for the door—then backpedaled and went for the computer console Ratchet had been working on instead.

"We should be able to access communications from here," Starscream murmured as he rapidly hacked the system. "As well as a map of the place—there, we're in!"

Shockwave took over looking for a map of the Autobot base, working on the other side of Starscream.

"Located the ground bridge," the larger Decepticon said. "As for the specific coordinates of where we are, that remains uncertain. We can only estimate our current location—"

"No point. This base is shielded." Starscream grumbled. "I can get communications out—" And the seeker was rapidly typing out a message. "—but its origin can't be traced. No Decepticons can groundbridge here." Starscream waved a claw at the shield's coding displayed on the screen. Shockwave quickly scanned it.

"I doubt even our combined efforts could bring that down with the time we have," Shockwave said, and Starscream grunted.

"We're no Soundwave," the seeker said. Then he perked up slightly at a small beep from the computer. "Speaking of which, Soundwave just confirmed the message was received and that help is on its way to Knock Out's location."

"Have you briefed him on the—?"

"The shielding? Yes, and he agrees—we are on our own here." Then Starscream frowned. "And I'm almost in touch with—"

"_This had better be someone saying cavalry's on their way_," Knock Out drawled over the live transmission.

"They are, but the Autobots will be there too if Shockwave and I don't stop them—just remain on your guard," Starscream urgently transmitted back.

"_Will do—though either I misheard, or you just said it's __**only**__ you and Shockwave against how many Bots—"_

"You didn't," Starscream growled. "We'll take care of it," Starscream said firmly. Then hesitated. "But, uh, just in case, be prepared."

"_Yes yes, we're in distress, not disarmed_—" Knock Out's irritable sigh crackled out over the live feed. "_Just don't die, hmmm?_"

"Of course," Starscream boasted, then cut the communications off.

###

While avoiding any patrols, Starscream and even Shockwave were growing more on edge as they followed the map to the ground bridge.

Trying to defuse the tension, Starscream admitted to Shockwave, "So, you're a team player after all—"

All it did was set Shockwave off.

"Why did you play into Ratchet's mindgame?" Shockwave growled. "Why unnecesarily risk yourself like that? I know your entire mental state was compromised by that situation and your past, but it was still—"

"'Illogical?'" Starscream tried, already starting to look apprehensive. Their searching walk continued, though Shockwave's strides grew longer and Starscream was now struggling to keep up with him.

"'_**Pointless**_,'" Shockwave snapped, making Starscream flinch. "An unnecessary risk, I was the more ideal target—"

"Maybe superficially—but look at how things turned out," Starscream protested, stretching his claws to take in all they'd managed to accomplish previously. "I played mind fried, you distracted Arcee and Ratchet, we're on our way to helping our comrades—"

"Through a combination of resourcefulness _and_ sheer luck," Shockwave snapped, stabbing a finger at Starscream. "Before any of those factors conspired for our little success, you risked our mission objective—"

Starscream looked more and more distressed as Shockwave lost control on his tirade.

"—on _what_, an inappropriate moment of 'self-sacrifice'—misplaced loyalty to a fellow Decepticon you barely know—?"

Finally Starscream snapped, his voice cracking, "_Because_ _I couldn't stand it_!" The seeker's heels finally screeched to a halt, and Shockwave stopped as well. Starscream's eyes were wild, and his voice faster and higher-pitched as he continued. "It was the thing I could stand the least in Ratchet's lab years ago, hearing him work on the others, watching him, hear everyone else around me scream and die and—"

Starscream finally quieted, swallowing hard, feeling Shockwave's singular gaze on him.

"—and I suppose by that logic I should not want to have anyone else feel _that_, not even you, but I—I could not stand it again, I _can't_, I—"

The seeker hissed, frustrated. He shook his head, then finally said in a low scrape of a voice, "My past won't further compromise me on this mission, I swear." Then Starscream blinked. "Uh, how _did_ you know about my past? Was it just the cortical psych patch—?" The seeker's eyes widened. "How much did you _see_?"

Shockwave resumed his stalking walk, and Starscream hurried to follow. "Soundwave's files are very thorough—"

Starscream rolled his eyes. "Of course—"

"—and I did not see much."

"Oh." And Starscream crossed his arms, glancing off to the side and hunching in on himself a little, feeling uncomfortable and wishing he could disappear for a moment.

"And I will not speak out of turn again, Starscream," said the larger Decepticon, and the seeker startled, looking up at him. "It was not my place to judge you. Not now."

Starscream's wings shifted a little, still startled and uncertain by this new development. "It's—no, it's fine—"

"I lost control. That's unacceptable."

"—but it brought a valid point to light," the seeker said, his voice more firm. "Snapping like that doesn't always result in something negative, you know."

Shockwave just made a noncommittal grunt.

###

"They won't reach Knock Out and the others in time if we take out their groundbridge," Starscream said in a low voice as he and Shockwave observed the gathering raid party and Ratchet from their place of cover.

"And we fight our way out afterward?" Shockwave asked in a deadpan voice.

Starscream made some sort of strange combination of a whine and a grumble deep in his throat. "Preferably not. We can set the groundbridge to malfunction after we escape...set it up to read our two Decepticon signals as the trigger..."

"Once we get rid of those guards," Shockwave pointed out from their cover. "I'll distract them, while you prepare the ground bridge."

Starscream nodded, and the two Decepticons split.

###

Ratchet had gotten enough of a cue from the moving troops, some falling, and the noise of laserfire, to start twisting away, and only getting shot through the shoulder instead of the head. The force of the shot still slammed him to the floor, and he coughed out mech fluid.

Shockwave advanced. "I told you not to touch him again."

Ratchet smirked, mech fluid still dripping. He stood up, unsheathing his blades. "Not as logical as you present yourself, are you?"

###

Again Starscream quietly thanked Soundwave and Thundercracker (_something hot and stinging flared up in the pit of his chassis at the thought of his oldest trinemate_) for teaching him hacking techniques as he worked to adjust the Autobot groundbridge's programming.

A familiar half-reflection in the console's screens was the only warning Starscream had. He twisted away, dropping his typing entirely as he dodged laser bolts from a furious Arcee charging straight for him.

Starscream grimaced, firing a missile back. Arcee deftly dodged, jumping straight into the air over the explosion and switching from guns to blades.

"Not that hard to get out of bindings when someone's _already _busted out of them!" Arcee snarled, stomping down with a kick that Starscream again narrowly dodged. Still she forced him back, darting forward with her blades raised. The seeker sharpened his claws.

###

_Scrap_, Shockwave thought when Starscream and Arcee flung themselves in between he and Ratchet, kicking and clawing and punching and generally doing an eerily accurate repeat of their skirmish in the medical bay earlier.

Ratchet was quick, snatching Starscream off Arcee. Shockwave rushed forward, moving to swipe Arcee out of the way, but the two-wheeler leapt and gracefully twisted around his arm, so that she was poised on his shoulder before brutally kicking the side of his head. It was enough to unsteady him and stop his charge toward Ratchet and Starscream.

The smaller Autobot kept coming, and Shockwave kept deflecting strikes of her blades with the blunt side of his arm until he finally headbutted her, the top part of his eye and the casing around it giving a satisfying smack as she dropped with a hiss. But Arcee's reinforcements came, forcing Shockwave back, and he could not find Starscream or Ratchet, or anyone by the unmanned groundbridge station.

###

"In all honesty, I'm not that surprised your mind survived," Ratchet said while Starscream struggled madly to keep the blowtorch arm away from his face. The old doctor had the seeker pinned against the body of a recently killed Autobot guard, and Starscream was scrambling to either push it away or shove Ratchet and his blowtorch off. "You always had a knack for living through experimentation, surprisingly hardier than your trine—"

Starscream swallowed his angry shriek as he kneed Ratchet in the chassis with the spike of his knee. Ratchet was finally forced back with a grunt, and Starscream's spiked knee satisfyingly ripped out of his lower chassis. But at the same time, the Autobot body was pushed away, and Starscream stumbled back, slipping in the corpse's spilled energon. He fell with an undignfied yelp, feeling the familiar wetness and stickiness of mech fluid. _Primus, would his legs stop shaking, would Ratchet stop __**doing**__ this to him, stop completely destroying his composure, destroying __**everything**_—

Starscream rolled out of the way to completely avoid Ratchet stabbing a blade into the floor where his wing had been. Springing up, Starscream aimed a blaster for Ratchet's head, about to fire. But a shot narrowly missing him convinced Starscream to retreat instead. He couldn't risk getting killed when he had to back up Shockwave and aid Knock Out and the others, though Ratchet _really_ needed to die...

_Where __**was **__Shockwave?_

No, he had to focus on altering the groundbridge's programming. Shockwave was fine.

Laying his eyes on the groundbridge station again, Starscream made a run for it despite the laserfire. He startled at some strangled screams. Turning, he found Shockwave, laying waste to those that had been firing at him.

"Keep going!" Shockwave snapped, and the seeker jerked back into action. Back at the groundbridge station, Starscream rapidly resumed his hacking.

###

Ratchet was coming up on Starscream's back fast.

Shockwave barrelled into him, gripping and tossing him away into would-be Autobot reinforcements that now crumpled beneath their superior.

"For the last time, _doctor_," Shockwave said the title low enough to indicate that he judged Ratchet to be completely unworthy of said title, "don't touch Starscream."

And then a shot fired, sizzling past Shockwave. It was Arcee, standing up after regaining consciousness, wiping a stray trail of mech fluid from her mouth. When Shockwave followed the path of the missed shot, he saw it unerringly fly toward Starscream's back—

"_Move_!" Shockwave shouted. The seeker quickly obeyed, jumping to the side.

The shot hit the groundbridge station instead.

Shockwave ran, pulling Starscream away and shoving the seeker behind him.

The station crackled, it sparked, the groundbridge activated, and Starscream moaned at the sight—especially since an electronic voice immediately said: _"Groundbridge self-destruction sequence activated. To be completed in sixty seconds."_

"Frag the raid, we are out of here!" Arcee shouted, transforming and speeding for the exit, and other Autobots scrambled to follow her lead.

Starscream ran out from behind Shockwave's side, checking the remains of the station, typing on the few keys left. Shockwave raised his gun arm, just in case. _Where was Ratchet?_

"Scrap," Starscream hissed. Then he grabbed Shockwave's wrist, pulling him to the groundbridge. "It's now set to deactivate when any two life signals enter, it won't distinguish faction, _we_ have to get in now—"

Missiles exploded near them, throwing the two Decepticons apart.

"_I_ order you to offline Shockwave, and capture Starscream," Ratchet shouted over the din of Autobots caught between fleeing with Arcee or staying. "Do not let them escape!"

Ratchet led the assault, holding a portable missile launcher, with another Autobot's torn-off hand still curled around one of its handles.

Shockwave recovered first, to find Starscream still struggling up, and Ratchet aiming—not at the seeker, but again to an area close to him, probably hoping to knock him out again, though Shockwave found his logic spectacularly flawed if Ratchet really wanted Starscream alive, or the old Autobot had a truly unrealistic expectation of the seeker's ability to survive—

The larger Decepticon shoved Starscream out of the way, and fired back at Ratchet.

"Go, I'll cover you."

"But—"

"I'll follow."

"_Shockwave_—"

"It is more difficult to fight with you here. _Go_."

Out of the corner of his eye, Shockwave saw Starscream, still hesitating—then the seeker's jaw clenched, and he ran for the groundbridge.

Shockwave pressed forward against Ratchet and his remaining forces.

Doge, fire, dodge, fire—finally it was too close, and Shockwave went hand-to-hand, pummelling and throwing the Autobot guards.

He grabbed Ratchet's missile launcher, fighting him for it.

Finally he ripped it out of the old mech's hands, and moved to slam the butt of it into his face.

But other smaller guards grabbed for the end of the missile launcher, making Shockwave twist to kick them off.

When they were down, Shockwave edged back and trained his gun hand on them, holding the launcher in the other. A warning to back off.

He looked for Ratchet—

The Autobot doctor was racing after Starscream fading away into the groundbridge.

_It's now set to deactivate when any two life signals enter, it won't distinguish faction, __**we**__ have to get in now._

Shockwave went to fire the launcher—it jammed. He threw it into another Autobot trying to ambush him, throwing that enemy down. Shockwave blasted at Ratchet—missed—

And hit the groundbridge station instead.

It finally burst, throwing Ratchet back, the groundbridge beginning to waver and dissipate, the compound shaking and threatening to come down, shrapnel flying fast—

And then Shockwave's head was wrenched back as everything was thrown into darkness and the pain of it all was enough to crack his composure and drive out an agonized shout.

Still conscious, his audio receptors heightened, them and other sensors working in overdrive to compensate for the abrupt loss of sight. _Focus, focus_. Through the pain he began to feel the problem and understand what his internal alerts were trying to say: a shard of shrapnel embedded through his eye.

Shockwave heard the agonized shouts of others in sharp relief, the noise of more explosions triggering, the stamping of pedes, the tear of metal and even energon splattering on the floor. Shockwave groped blindly, trying to recall the memory of the map, of this room's layout.

There was a terrific crack, and Shockwave felt the ground buckle around him, the roar of something breaking above, the rush of air—

###

When Shockwave woke up, he was still in darkness. The shrapnel was still in his socket, and now he could register the touch of broken glass inside, pieces of his eye that remained with him.

He could not move. From what Shockwave could feel, it was a combination of severe injury, energon loss, sheer exhaustion, and more than half of his body being pinned down by debris.

Shockwave vented slowly. It was quiet. He was alone.

He let the solitude consume him without a fight for five seconds, then tried to actively push it away. He told himself Starscream had made it to the other side. That the groundbridge collapse had not affected him. He told himself Knock Out and the others had received their reinforcements, their evacuation.

He told himself that the others would think him dead. It was the only logical conclusion they could make.

Shockwave concluded that his one slim chance to survive was to rely on whatever his self-repair protocols could do for him, and on the slow return of his energy, before trying to free himself from the debris—

Which just started to tremble.

Shockwave estimated that he could not survive another aftershock, even though he already miraculously lived up to this point. He could not rely on miracles, or luck.

But...why would there be an aftershock now, unless it was a separate and poorly timed geological event?

The debris trembled more, he heard it move. Shockwave felt displaced pebbles bouncing off his finish. But Shockwave recognized the sound of claw against metal and stone—

"Oh _scrap_," Starscream rasped, and Shockwave was dumbfounded. The seeker was here?

"D-don't worry, we'll have you out soon," Starscream said, his voice occasionally going high, and cracking. Then Shockwave heard Starscream shriek, "_I found him_!" The larger Decepticon heard claws scratching and clutching debris, and the sounds of debris moving. "Knock Out is here, he'll tend to your eye, and the rest of you—you'll be fine—"

"You came back," Shockwave said, still dazed.

Starscream gave a grumbling sigh. "I know, I know, it was illogical."

"It was," Shockwave said. "But you have a strange way of making it work to your advantage."

He heard Starscream give a small, hysterical chuckle.

###

"Any other surivors?" Shockwave asked after the combined efforts of Starscream, Breakdown and various others pulled him out of the rubble. Knock Out already knelt by his side, examining him. (Besides Starscream, Breakdown and Knock Out had been the only other voices he recognized.)

"Still looking—" Breakdown started, then stopped; perhaps he saw something, but all Shockwave heard was the cry of a jet's engine.

"Clear out, Soundwave says more Bots are coming, and Optimus Prime with them!" The flier warned, and Shockwave identified the voice as Slipstream's.

"Oh thank primus," Knock Out said, the dryness in his voice so thick Shockwave wondered if his audio receptors were that heightened without sight working with them. "We won't have to bother with another moral dilemma, this time over whether or not we should really treat enemy Bots that were just gearing up to slaughter us all."

(Shockwave wondered if a circuit could be blown by sarcasm alone, or if Knock Out's voice ever grew tired over it, no matter how well it fit.)

"Right, win-win, the Bots get to take care of their own," Breakdown said, his own voice remarkably approaching the same level of dryness as his partner's.

"Huzzah," Starscream flatly said as he looped an arm underneath Shockwave, and helped him up toward the sound of a groundbridge.

###

"...she'll be here soon? Good."

Ratchet heard Optimus, and woke up. Perhaps his leader needed him? As his sight readjusted further, he saw Optimus wiping his hands with a chamois cloth. When Optimus put the cloth down, it was stained with energon.

"Is everything all right?" Ratchet croaked.

Optimus gave a careless shrug. "Survivors are still being brought in."

The older Autobot slowly blinked at him. That wasn't what Ratchet had been asking, and he knew his leader was aware of that. But he also knew his leader often had his reasons for deflection. For the moment, Ratchet put the question of the spilled energon on Optimus' hands out of his mind.

"I apologize for letting Starscream escape and the failure of the rai—"

"I've already been debriefed, Ratchet," Optimus said, his voice cool. Bordering on icy. "Do not concern yourself." Then his voice marginally softened. "Just get a little more rest. We'll discuss this more later."

The med bay door hissed open.

Arcee was carried in, leaking and dented. Her venting was shallow as she was placed on the empty berth next to him, covered in energon with one arm broken in three places, gashes criss-crossing half of her face and keeping one eye shut.

Ratchet was confused. "Arcee, I thought you had escaped the explosion?"

Optimus tapped her berth, and the two-wheeler's eyes snapped open, staring at the Prime in horrified alarm.

"She did," Optimus said, serene, and with a smile.

And Ratchet was no longer confused.

###

Starscream beamed at Shockwave. Shockwave could see it. See how obnoxiously big Starscream's grin was.

"See, Knock Out was able to fix you, you're perfectly fine now—"

Then Starscream's eyes darted to the rest of the wounds that Shockwave could now see. The larger Decepticon himself had to agree with Knock Out's assessment of his sorry state. Though he wanted to get up and leave, there was work to do, he could find no reason to avoid abiding by Knock Out's order to stay in the med bay. Even with sight, Shockwave knew he couldn't operate efficiently in this state. Not until he was healed.

"—well, for the most part."

"The doctor said I was very fortunate. If the shrapnel had gone deeper..." Shockwave trailed off, and Starscream didn't twitch, or jerk, for once he seemed perfectly composed. Shockwave supposed that the seeker understood, in his own way. Understood Shockwave's currently unsteady grip on self-control.

"...The cortical psych patch was a mistake."

Starscream moved, jerking a hand up, acting more like what Shockwave was used to. "I wouldn't say—"

"It's in Ratchet's hands now."

"It's still in yours too," Starscream pointed out.

"I should've kept it only in mine."

"There are a lot of things we all should've done," the seeker murmured in a low voice, his eyes distant. Then he startled, as if realizing what he'd actually said, something that was clearly spoken without thinking. A possibility that didn't really surprise Shockwave.

"...Based on your file, there's no logical reason to blame yourself for what happened to your trine, and the rest of your squadron," Shockwave said in a low voice.

It really wasn't his place, and such emotional matters were foreign territory to him. But the larger Decepticon felt even he could read that Starscream was plagued by guilt, and that...that he should try to alleviate it somehow. After their mission. After Shockwave's own technology had invaded the seeker's mind and unveiled too many things without his consent and generally revived a lot of trauma. It was Ratchet too...but Shockwave had armed him, no matter his intentions.

"There was nothing you 'could've' or 'should've' done to prevent their fate," Shockwave said.

Starscream looked away. "I was able to help you." The seeker's claws began to clench and unclench. "I _did_, I did that—but I could do _nothing_ for Skywarp, or Thundercracker—"

The seeker swallowed. Then he gave a low barking laugh. "I can't make you feel better, you can't make me feel better—"

"It is why I prefer logic," Shockwave quietly said. "Less complicated than emotion."

A lopsided smirk spread across Starscream's face. "Unfortunate you got stuck with me back there then, wasn't it?"

Shockwave stared at the smaller Decepticon, considering. Finding it rather strange that Starscream and Arcee unwittingly agreed on something. It wasn't that surprising that Shockwave's own opinion contradicted theirs.

"Not necessarily," he finally said.

_fin_

**A/N: And that's it, thank you for reading! Again, feedback is always appreciated.**


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